Monday, February 25, 2008

The Doors Of Perception: Why Americans Will Believe Almost Anythingby Dr. Tim O'Shea

We are the most conditioned, programmed beings the world has ever known. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded; our very awareness of the whole design seems like it is being subtly and inexorably erased.

The doors of our perception are carefully and precisely regulated. Who cares, right?

It is an exhausting and endless task to keep explaining to people how most issues of conventional wisdom are scientifically implanted in the public consciousness by a thousand media clips per day. In an effort to save time, I would like to provide just a little background on the handling of information in this country.

Once the basic principles are illustrated about how our current system of media control arose historically, the reader might be more apt to question any given story in today's news.

In America, conventional wisdom that has mass acceptance is usually contrived: somebody paid for it. Examples:

* Pharmaceuticals restore health * Vaccination brings immunity * The cure for cancer is just around the corner * When a child is sick, he needs immediate antibiotics * When a child has a fever he needs Tylenol * Hospitals are safe and clean. * America has the best health care in the world. * And many many more

This is a list of illusions, that have cost billions and billions to conjure up. Did you ever wonder why you never see the President speaking publicly unless he is reading? Or why most people in this country think generally the same about most of the above issues?

How This Set-Up Got Started

In Trust Us We're Experts, Stauber and Rampton pull together some compelling data describing the science of creating public opinion in America.

They trace modern public influence back to the early part of the last century, highlighting the work of guys like Edward L. Bernays, the Father of Spin. From his own amazing chronicle Propaganda, we learn how Edward L. Bernays took the ideas of his famous uncle Sigmund Freud himself, and applied them to the emerging science of mass persuasion.

The only difference was that instead of using these principles to uncover hidden themes in the human unconscious, the way Freudian psychology does, Bernays used these same ideas to mask agendas and to create illusions that deceive and misrepresent, for marketing purposes.

The Father Of Spin

Bernays dominated the PR industry until the 1940s, and was a significant force for another 40 years after that. (Tye) During all that time, Bernays took on hundreds of diverse assignments to create a public perception about some idea or product. A few examples:

As a neophyte with the Committee on Public Information, one of Bernays' first assignments was to help sell the First World War to the American public with the idea to "Make the World Safe for Democracy." (Ewen)

A few years later, Bernays set up a stunt to popularize the notion of women smoking cigarettes. In organizing the 1929 Easter Parade in New York City, Bernays showed himself as a force to be reckoned with.

He organized the Torches of Liberty Brigade in which suffragettes marched in the parade smoking cigarettes as a mark of women's liberation. Such publicity followed from that one event that from then on women have felt secure about destroying their own lungs in public, the same way that men have always done.

Bernays popularized the idea of bacon for breakfast.

Not one to turn down a challenge, he set up the advertising format along with the AMA that lasted for nearly 50 years proving that cigarettes are beneficial to health. Just look at ads in issues of Life or Time from the 40s and 50s.

Smoke And Mirrors

Bernay's job was to reframe an issue; to create a desired image that would put a particular product or concept in a desirable light. Bernays described the public as a 'herd that needed to be led.' And this herdlike thinking makes people "susceptible to leadership."

Bernays never deviated from his fundamental axiom to "control the masses without their knowing it." The best PR happens with the people unaware that they are being manipulated.

Stauber describes Bernays' rationale like this:

"the scientific manipulation of public opinion was necessary to overcome chaos and conflict in a democratic society." Trust Us p 42

These early mass persuaders postured themselves as performing a moral service for humanity in general - democracy was too good for people; they needed to be told what to think, because they were incapable of rational thought by themselves. Here's a paragraph from Bernays' Propaganda:

"Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested largely by men we have never heard of.

This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.

In almost every act of our lives whether in the sphere of politics or business in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind."

Here Comes The Money

Once the possibilities of applying Freudian psychology to mass media were glimpsed, Bernays soon had more corporate clients than he could handle. Global corporations fell all over themselves courting the new Image Makers. There were dozens of goods and services and ideas to be sold to a susceptible public. Over the years, these players have had the money to make their images happen. A few examples:

Bernays learned early on that the most effective way to create credibility for a product or an image was by "independent third-party" endorsement.

For example, if General Motors were to come out and say that global warming is a hoax thought up by some liberal tree-huggers, people would suspect GM's motives, since GM's fortune is made by selling automobiles.

If however some independent research institute with a very credible sounding name like the Global Climate Coalition comes out with a scientific report that says global warming is really a fiction, people begin to get confused and to have doubts about the original issue.

So that's exactly what Bernays did. With a policy inspired by genius, he set up "more institutes and foundations than Rockefeller and Carnegie combined." (Stauber p 45)

Quietly financed by the industries whose products were being evaluated, these "independent" research agencies would churn out "scientific" studies and press materials that could create any image their handlers wanted. Such front groups are given high-sounding names like:

As Stauber explains, these organizations and hundreds of others like them are front groups whose sole mission is to advance the image of the global corporations who fund them, like those listed on page 2 above.

This is accomplished in part by an endless stream of 'press releases' announcing "breakthrough" research to every radio station and newspaper in the country. (Robbins) Many of these canned reports read like straight news, and indeed are purposely molded in the news format.

This saves journalists the trouble of researching the subjects on their own, especially on topics about which they know very little. Entire sections of the release or in the case of video news releases, the whole thing can be just lifted intact, with no editing, given the byline of the reporter or newspaper or TV station - and voilá! Instant news - copy and paste. Written by corporate PR firms.

Does this really happen? Every single day, since the 1920s when the idea of the News Release was first invented by Ivy Lee. (Stauber, p 22) Sometimes as many as half the stories appearing in an issue of the Wall St. Journal are based solely on such PR press releases.. (22)

These types of stories are mixed right in with legitimately researched stories. Unless you have done the research yourself, you won't be able to tell the difference.

The Language Of Spin

As 1920s spin pioneers like Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays gained more experience, they began to formulate rules and guidelines for creating public opinion. They learned quickly that mob psychology must focus on emotion, not facts. Since the mob is incapable of rational thought, motivation must be based not on logic but on presentation. Here are some of the axioms of the new science of PR:

* technology is a religion unto itself * if people are incapable of rational thought, real democracy is dangerous * important decisions should be left to experts * when reframing issues, stay away from substance; create images * never state a clearly demonstrable lie

Words are very carefully chosen for their emotional impact. Here's an example. A front group called the International Food Information Council handles the public's natural aversion to genetically modified foods.

Trigger words are repeated all through the text. Now in the case of GM foods, the public is instinctively afraid of these experimental new creations which have suddenly popped up on our grocery shelves which are said to have DNA alterations. The IFIC wants to reassure the public of the safety of GM foods, so it avoids words like:

It's basic Freudian/Tony Robbins word association. The fact that GM foods are not hybrids that have been subjected to the slow and careful scientific methods of real crossbreeding doesn't really matter. This is pseudoscience, not science. Form is everything and substance just a passing myth. (Trevanian)

Who do you think funds the International Food Information Council? Take a wild guess. Right - Monsanto, DuPont, Frito-Lay, Coca Cola, Nutrasweet - those in a position to make fortunes from GM foods. (Stauber p 20)

Characteristics Of Good Propaganda

As the science of mass control evolved, PR firms developed further guidelines for effective copy. Here are some of the gems:

* dehumanize the attacked party by labeling and name calling * speak in glittering generalities using emotionally positive words * when covering something up, don't use plain English; stall for time; distract * get endorsements from celebrities, churches, sports figures, street people - anyone who has no expertise in the subject at hand * the 'plain folks' ruse: us billionaires are just like you * when minimizing outrage, don't say anything memorable, point out the benefits of what just happened, and avoid moral issues

Keep this list. Start watching for these techniques. Not hard to find - look at today's paper or tonight's TV news. See what they're doing; these guys are good!

Science For Hire

PR firms have become very sophisticated in the preparation of news releases. They have learned how to attach the names of famous scientists to research that those scientists have not even looked at. (Stauber, p 201)

This is a common occurrence. In this way the editors of newspapers and TV news shows are often not even aware that an individual release is a total PR fabrication. Or at least they have "deniability," right?

Stauber tells the amazing story of how leaded gas came into the picture. In 1922, General Motors discovered that adding lead to gasoline gave cars more horsepower.

When there was some concern about safety, GM paid the Bureau of Mines to do some fake "testing" and publish spurious research that 'proved' that inhalation of lead was harmless. Enter Charles Kettering.

Founder of the world famous Sloan-Kettering Memorial Institute for medical research, Charles Kettering also happened to be an executive with General Motors.

By some strange coincidence, we soon have the Sloan Kettering institute issuing reports stating that lead occurs naturally in the body and that the body has a way of eliminating low level exposure.

Through its association with The Industrial Hygiene Foundation and PR giant Hill & Knowlton, Sloane Kettering opposed all anti-lead research for years. (Stauber p 92). Without organized scientific opposition, for the next 60 years more and more gasoline became leaded, until by the 1970s, 90% of our gasoline was leaded.

Finally it became too obvious to hide that lead was a major carcinogen, and leaded gas was phased out in the late 1980s. But during those 60 years, it is estimated that some 30 million tons of lead were released in vapor form onto American streets and highways. 30 million tons.

That is PR, my friends.

Junk Science

In 1993 a guy named Peter Huber wrote a new book and coined a new term. The book was Galileo's Revenge and the term was junk science. Huber's shallow thesis was that real science supports technology, industry, and progress.

Anything else was suddenly junk science. Not surprisingly, Stauber explains how Huber's book was supported by the industry-backed Manhattan Institute.

Huber's book was generally dismissed not only because it was so poorly written, but because it failed to realize one fact: true scientific research begins with no conclusions. Real scientists are seeking the truth because they do not yet know what the truth is.

True scientific method goes like this:

1. Form a hypothesis 2. Make predictions for that hypothesis 3. Test the predictions 4. Reject or revise the hypothesis based on the research findings

Boston University scientist Dr. David Ozonoff explains that ideas in science are themselves like "living organisms, that must be nourished, supported, and cultivated with resources for making them grow and flourish." (Stauber p 205)

Great ideas that don't get this financial support because the commercial angles are not immediately obvious - these ideas wither and die.

Another way you can often distinguish real science from phony is that real science points out flaws in its own research. Phony science pretends there were no flaws.

The Real Junk Science

Contrast this with modern PR and its constant pretensions to sound science. Corporate sponsored research, whether it's in the area of drugs, GM foods, or chemistry begins with predetermined conclusions.

It is the job of the scientists then to prove that these conclusions are true, because of the economic upside that proof will bring to the industries paying for that research. This invidious approach to science has shifted the entire focus of research in America during the past 50 years, as any true scientist is likely to admit.

Stauber documents the increasing amount of corporate sponsorship of university research. (206) This has nothing to do with the pursuit of knowledge. Scientists lament that research has become just another commodity, something bought and sold. (Crossen)

The Two Main Targets Of "Sound Science"

It is shocking when Stauber shows how the vast majority of corporate PR today opposes any research that seeks to protect

* public health * the environment

It's a funny thing that most of the time when we see the phrase "junk science," it is in a context of defending something that may threaten either the environment or our health.

This makes sense when one realizes that money changes hands only by selling the illusion of health and the illusion of environmental protection. True public health and real preservation of the earth's environment have very low market value.

Stauber thinks it ironic that industry's self-proclaimed debunkers of junk science are usually non-scientists themselves. (255) Here again they can do this because the issue is not science, but the creation of images.

The Language Of Attack

When PR firms attack legitimate environmental groups and alternative medicine people, they again use special words which will carry an emotional punch:

The next time you are reading a newspaper article about an environmental or health issue, note how the author shows bias by using the above terms. This is the result of very specialized training.

Another standard PR tactic is to use the rhetoric of the environmentalists themselves to defend a dangerous and untested product that poses an actual threat to the environment. This we see constantly in the PR smokescreen that surrounds genetically modified foods.

They talk about how GM foods are necessary to grow more food and to end world hunger, when the reality is that GM foods actually have lower yields per acre than natural crops. (Stauber p 173)

The grand design sort of comes into focus once you realize that almost all GM foods have been created by the sellers of herbicides and pesticides so that those plants can withstand greater amounts of herbicides and pesticides. (The Magic Bean)

Kill Your TV?

Hope this chapter has given you a hint to start reading newspaper and magazine articles a little differently, and perhaps start watching TV news shows with a slightly different attitude than you had before.

Always ask, what are they selling here, and who's selling it? And if you actually follow up on Stauber & Rampton's book and check out some of the other resources below, you might even glimpse the possibility of advancing your life one quantum simply by ceasing to subject your brain to mass media.

That's right - no more newspapers, no more TV news, no more Time magazine or Newsweek. You could actually do that. Just think what you could do with the extra time alone.

Really feel like you need to "relax" or find out "what's going on in the world" for a few hours every day? Think about the news of the past couple of years for a minute.

Do you really suppose the major stories that have dominated headlines and TV news have been "what is going on in the world?" Do you actually think there's been nothing going on besides the contrived tech slump, the contrived power shortages, the re-filtered accounts of foreign violence and disaster, and all the other non-stories that the puppeteers dangle before us every day?

What about when they get a big one, like with OJ or Monica Lewinsky or the Oklahoma city bombing? Do we really need to know all that detail, day after day? Do we have any way of verifying all that detail, even if we wanted to? What is the purpose of news?

To inform the public? Hardly. The sole purpose of news is to keep the public in a state of fear and uncertainty so that they'll watch again tomorrow and be subjected to the same advertising.

Oversimplification? Of course. That's the mark of mass media mastery - simplicity. The invisible hand. Like Edward Bernays said, the people must be controlled without them knowing it.

Consider this: what was really going on in the world all that time they were distracting us with all that stupid vexatious daily smokescreen? Fear and uncertainty -- that's what keeps people coming back for more.

If this seems like a radical outlook, let's take it one step further:

What would you lose from your life if you stopped watching TV and stopped reading newspapers altogether?

Would your life really suffer any financial, moral, intellectual or academic loss from such a decision?

Do you really need to have your family continually absorbing the illiterate, amoral, phony, uncultivated, desperately brainless values of the people featured in the average nightly TV program? Are these fake, programmed robots "normal"?

Do you need to have your life values constantly spoon-fed to you?

Are those shows really amusing, or just a necessary distraction to keep you from looking at reality, or trying to figure things out yourself by doing a little independent reading?

Name one example of how your life is improved by watching TV news and reading the evening paper.

What measurable gain is there for you?

Planet of the Apes?

There's no question that as a nation, we're getting dumber year by year. Look at the presidents we've been choosing lately. Ever notice the blatant grammar mistakes so ubiquitous in today's advertising and billboards?

Literacy is marginal in most American secondary schools. Three fourths of California high school seniors can't read well enough to pass their exit exams. (SJ Mercury 20 Jul 01)

If you think other parts of the country are smarter, try this one: hand any high school senior a book by Dumas or Jane Austen, and ask them to open to any random page and just read one paragraph out loud. Go ahead, do it. SAT scales are arbitrarily shifted lower and lower to disguise how dumb kids are getting year by year.

At least 10% have documented "learning disabilities," which are reinforced and rewarded by special treatment and special drugs. Ever hear of anyone failing a grade any more?

Or observe the intellectual level of the average movie which these days may only last one or two weeks in the theatres, especially if it has insufficient explosions, chase scenes, silicone, fake martial arts, and cretinesque dialogue.

Radio? Consider the low mental qualifications of the falsely animated corporate simians they hire as DJs -- they're only allowed to have 50 thoughts, which they just repeat at random.

And at what point did popular music cease to require the study of any musical instrument or theory whatsoever, not to mention lyric? Perhaps we just don't understand this emerging art form, right? The Darwinism of MTV - apes descended from man.

Ever notice how most articles in any of the glossy magazines sound like they were all written by the same guy? And this guy just graduated from junior college? And yet he has all the correct opinions on social issues, no original ideas, and that shallow, smug, homogenized corporate omniscience, which enables him to assure us that everything is going to be fine...

All this is great news for the PR industry - makes their job that much easier. Not only are very few paying attention to the process of conditioning; fewer are capable of understanding it even if somebody explained it to them.

Tea In the Cafeteria

Let's say you're in a crowded cafeteria, and you buy a cup of tea. And as you're about to sit down you see your friend way across the room. So you put the tea down and walk across the room and talk to your friend for a few minutes.

Now, coming back to your tea, are you just going to pick it up and drink it? Remember, this is a crowded place and you've just left your tea unattended for several minutes. You've given anybody in that room access to your tea.

Why should your mind be any different? Turning on the TV, or uncritically absorbing mass publications every day - these activities allow access to our minds by "just anyone" - anyone who has an agenda, anyone with the resources to create a public image via popular media.

As we've seen above, just because we read something or see something on TV doesn't mean it's true or worth knowing. So the idea here is, like the tea, the mind is also worth guarding, worth limiting access to it.

This is the only life we get. Time is our total capital. Why waste it allowing our potential, our personality, our values to be shaped, crafted, and limited according to the whims of the mass panderers?

There are many important issues that are crucial to our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. If it's an issue where money is involved, objective data won't be so easy to obtain. Remember, if everybody knows something, that image has been bought and paid for.

Real knowledge takes a little effort, a little excavation down at least one level below what "everybody knows."

References

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

One of the main reasons I publish my free health e-newsletter is to provide you, the reader, with the truth -- without any connections to any third party organizations, advertisers, etc. -- so you can weed through much of the nonsense that the media throws at you and learn what can REALLY help you and your loved ones fight and prevent disease and enhance the quality and length of your life.

So much of what you hear about "healthcare" through the media is manipulated or controlled by the pharmaceutical and other medical giants who have mass profit, not your personal health, as their primary goal. My free health e-newsletter has grown to over 250,000 subscribers because:

A) my vision and passion is to change the current healthcare system to one focused on real prevention and cure versus the current Band-Aid approach of drugs and surgeries that only patches things over, and I am committed to providing you the TRUTH about health and medical news toward that end

B) I am an internationally respected physician with over two decades of experience developing a REAL health and dietary plan that has PROVEN to help tens of thousands of my patients overcome chronic disease. The point is, my passion and lifelong dedication has been to help people, including the millions of readers of Mercola.com (now one of the world's top-five most visited health websites), improve their health, whether they are confronting some disease, illness, or weight issue or seeking to improve already good health, and motives have EVERYTHING to do with who you should trust with health advice. If you are interested learning more about my dietary and health program, read more about my new book, Dr. Mercola's Total Health Program, now. All of my profits, as you will read, are going to a new non-profit organization dedicating to changing the healthcare paradigm in the U.S. and beyond to one focused on real prevention and cure versus the current drug-domination model fueling a lot of hype that doesn't really help you.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Monsanto's fiendish plot to control the world's seed industry with the "Terminator Seed"

The legendary "Johnny Appleseed" (John Chapman) between 1800 and 1849 wandered the wilds of the Ohio Valley planting apple trees. Over 150 years later some of these trees are still bearing fruit. But in today's world large seed companies are striving to make what Johnny Appleseed did illegal.

Giant companies like Monsanto, producer of the Terminator seeds (page 104), are striving to stop farmers from saving and re-using their seeds from generation to generation. They require farmers to sign a licensing agreement which strongly prohibits the reuse of Monsanto seeds. They even hire investigators like the Pinkerton Detective Agency and have others spy on their neighbors to identify farmers who break their contracts. It's bad enough that they have turned America's heartland into a farming police-state; but it's absolutely unforgivable that they seek to keep third-world farmers (who usually cannot afford to buy new seeds every year) from feeding billions of people who depend on their crops.

Johnny Appleseed, one of the great American heroes, dreamed of a land covered with apple trees, a land where no one would go hungry. One hundred and fifty years later Monsanto has replaced Johnny Appleseed's joyous dream with a new and evil one of profit and famine.

We must protest against Monsanto and their efforts to control the world's seeds, plants and the people's food! Write and alert your congressmen and senators, and talk to family and friends to make them aware! Learn more about this shocking situation; protest and spread the word!

Keep World's Plant Seeds Alive - Not Sterile!

Until recently the magic of the garden, the joy of growing plants and food, was as simple as collecting Mother Nature's seeds and caring for them season after season. Since I was 5 years old I have taken great joy in collecting seeds and giving them away, spreading the beauty of the plants they contained throughout the world. My Dad filled me with wonder at the stories of Johnny Appleseed's accomplishments (see page 30), and I strive to follow his admirable path. Sweetpeas were my favorite.

My Dad and I gave away thousands of sweetpea seeds and they are all over the world. Now simple human pleasures such as this are in jeopardy. Some large seed companies now claim their seeds as "intellectual property." In this way, seed companies prohibit farmers by force from saving and re-using seeds from one crop to the next. Even more disturbingly, in recent years major seed companies have made great strides in genetically engineering sterile seeds that sprout plants incapable of reproducing.

If Dad and I didn't collect and spread these sweetpea seeds around the world, there would be no seed legacy to give us joy. These seeds would be no more than rotting pellets in the ground. Save the world's seeds for you and your children! Write your elected representatives and protest with strong words that you want this stopped!

Make your voice heard!

Visit the etcgroup website for more info on genetic engineering of seeds: www.etcgroup.org

Terminator Sterile Seeds Threaten World's Food Freedom!

Terminator seeds are sterile crop seeds patented and marketed by the Monsanto Corp. that have been biologically altered to sprout a permanently infertile plant. The large scale use of these seeds (which is already underway in over 78 countries) could directly threaten the well-being of 1.4 billion people who now depend on food grown with fertile seeds.

This would present a huge risk to the world because it could spread and sterilize all living plants, trees, etc. Farmers (and their neighbors, with plants 'accidentally' cross-pollinated by Terminator plants) would be forced to buy new seeds every year. For many of these farmers financial ruin would result, thus bringing on misery and famine for millions worldwide. Monsanto's seed program has no benefits for the world, only for the company's pocketbook. Discover Monsanto's fiendish plot to control the world's seed industry.

Don’t Drink the Water?Fluoride from your tap may not do much good – and may cause cancer.

Remember the great fluoride debate? Back in the 1950’s, every voice of authority, from the U.S. Public Health Service to the PTA, supported adding fluoride to the water supply as an effective and totally safe way to promote healthy teeth. The only opponents seemed to be John Birchers and other extremists who regarded the scheme as a diabolical communist plot. In the years since, most of the nation’s major cities fluoridated their water, and the issue appeared closed. No less an objective voice than Consumer Reports declared in 1978, “The survival of this fake controversy . . .represents one of the major triumphs of quackery over science in our generation.”

In fact, the debate never ended. Now it may explode as never before, posing new challenges to medical dogma and giving parents one more thing to worry about. Government researchers have new evidence that casts doubt on the benefits of fluoridation and suggests that it is not without risk. The most incendiary results come from the National Toxicology Program (NTP), which in 1977 was ordered by Congress to determine whether fluoride causes cancer. This week NTP plans to release data showing that lab rats given fluoridated water had a higher rate of a rare bone cancer called osteosarcoma. According to a memo by the Environmental Protection Agency, “very preliminary data from recent health studies . . . indicate that fluoride may be a carcinogen.”

Fluoridation proponents are already criticizing the NTP study, but it will be harder to discredit or ignore than hundreds of earlier experiments, varying in quality from around the world, that have linked fluoride to mottled teeth, skeletal damage, genetic defects and other ills.

During the two-year experiment, rats and mice drank water with different levels of sodium fluoride. None of the animals drinking fluoride-free water developed cancer, nor did any of those drinking water with the lowest fluoride concentration, 11 parts per million (ppm). But of the 50 male rats consuming 45 ppm water, one developed osteosarcoma. Four of 80 male rats drinking 79 ppm fluoride developed osteosarcoma. No mice or female rats showed signs of bone cancer.

Although the animals drank higher concentrations of fluoride than people, (the legal standard is 4 ppm), such megadosing is standard toxicological practice. It’s the only way to detect an effect without using an impossibly large number of test animals in lieu of the humans exposed to the substance.

Although the final NTP report will not be released for months, several independent toxicologists find the results significant. Most important, the rats who did not drink fluoride did not get cancer, indicating that the malignancies are “not a fluke,” says EPA scientist William Marcus.There is also a convincing relationship between dose and response: the more fluoride, the more cancers.Pathologist David Kaufman of the University of North Carolina warns that the rat data must be examined to see if the cancers appeared in the long bones

“Fluoridation is the greatest case of scientific fraud of this century, if not all time.”– Robert Carton, Ph.D., Toxicologist

“The survival of this fake controversy represents the major triumph of quackery over science in our time!"– Landmark Article in Consumer Reports '78

of the arms and legs, as osteosarcomas do in humans, or in other places, which might make the results less relevant to people. Still, Kaufman says NTP data “make fluoride look like a weak carcinogen. It’s obviously something to worry about”

– but not panic over. are about 900 cases of osteosarcoma in the United States annually; even if fluoride caused all of them – an impossibility – the lifetime risk to any individual from drinking fluoridate tap water would still be only about one in 5,000.

Too crude: If fluoride causes bone cancer in lab rats, then why, after 45 years of fluoridation, haven’t researchers seen a rash of osteosarcomas in fluoridated cities? Because epidemiology is too crude to detect it even if the cancers are there. In the 1970’s, the National Cancer Institute found no sign of higher cancer rates in fluoridated cities. But that reassuring finding may be misleading. According to Donald Taves, a fluoride expert, if the difference were anything less than 7 percent it would not be detectable. Another obstacle to definitive epidemiology is mobility: just because a person got osteosarcoma in a fluoridated city does not mean he had been living there all his life.

The NTP results assume an added importance when combined with recent data on the shrinking benefits of fluoridation. According to the American Dental Association (ADA), tooth decay is anywhere from 50 to 70 percent less in fluoridated areas. But figures from the National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR), part of the National Institutes of Health, suggest otherwise. A 1987 survey of almost 40,000 schoolchildren found that tooth decay had declined sharply everywhere. Children who always lived in fluoridated areas had 18 percent less decay, compared with their peers who had lived in nonfluoridated areas. This 18 percent translates into a difference of fewer than one cavity per child. Similarly, in a 1986 paper in the British journal Nature, Australian researcher Mark Diesendorf assessed 24 studies from eight countries and found that cavity rates had declined equally in fluoridated and nonfluoridated areas, suggesting fluoridated water isn't that important! As a result of all these past and current studies, argues Alan Gray, a leading pro-fluoridation dentist in Canada, "it is now becoming difficult to provide accurate, and ethical advice" to people about fluoridation.Protesters To Fluoride

Fluoridation is unique among environmental controversies, in that one side has consistently denied that questions of risk or benefit even exist. The ADA states, "Anti-fluoridation groups attempt to create the illusion of a scientific controversy (which is ) merely a ploy to create doubt about a well-researched, well-demonstrated preventive measure." But even well-researched articles raise hackles. When, in 1988, Chemical & Engineering News presented a balanced report on fluoridation, it attracted the wrath of the medical establishment. Says Taves, "Too many scientists lost their objectivity. This has become a religion on both sides."

The NIDR kept files on people perceived as threats to fluoridation. Political decisions were at odds with expert advice: a panel convened by the Surgeon General even in 1983 expressed concern, in closed sessions, about skeletal and dental damage from fluoride. At one point, a member said, "You would have to have rocks in your head, in my opinion, to allow your child much more than 2 ppm (fluoride)." Said another, "I think we all agree on that." Even so, in 1986 EPA raised the fluoride standard from 2 to 4ppm, except in Calif. where it remains 2ppm.

This month EPA opened a review of the standard. Once EPA receives the official NTP report, it will establish a target "safe" fluoride level. The Safe Drinking Water Act requires the level for carcinogens be zero, but the standard may be based on what is technically feasible. Fluoridation can be stopped immediately, but many communities with naturally fluoridated water would have to take out the fluoride if it exceeded the limit of 4 ppm. As the EPA wrestles with standards, John Sullivan of the American Water Works Association fears, "confusion will reign" since some laws will still require fluoridation, a practice many claim causes cancer!

As they await EPA’s decision, pro-fluoridationists are invoking arguments of social justice. Dental researcher Ernest Newbrun of the University of California, San Francisco, contends that fluoridation promotes the health of children of “all races and all socioeconomic classes,” not only those with enough money or discipline or access to the health system to take a fluoride supplement every day. He and others say it is morally wrong not to provide the benefits of fluoride. The NIDR’s and other's surveys suggest that fluoride in toothpastes and dental rinses also ensures healthy teeth for those who use the fluoride products, they imply that those who don't use them might suffer.

No one can foresee how the fluoride debate will play out this time. But since the 1950’s, the country’s environmental consciousness has been heightened. In the end, deciding whether or not to fluoridate turns less on science than on values. The sheer weight of good research may finally, after four decades, begin to wisely inform those judgments and even overwhelm the unscientific rhetoric that has characterized both sides of the debate for far too long. – SHARON BEGLEY

J. William Hirzy, Ph.D., Senior Vice-President of the National Federation of Federal Employees stated in a letter, July 2,1997 to Jeff Green, of Citizens for Safe Drinking Water, “I am pleased to report that our union, which represents and is comprised of the scientists, lawyers, engineers and other professionals at the headquarters in Washington, D.C. of the US Environmental Protection Agency, has voted to co-sponsor the California Citizen’s Petition to prohibit fluoridation. The evidence over the last 11 years indicates a causal link between fluoride and cancer, genetic damage, neurological impairment, bone pathology and lower IQ in children. We conclude that the health and welfare of the public is NOT served by the addition of fluoride to the public water supply!”

• Some fruit juices contain shocking amounts of fluoride, with some brands of grape juice containing much higher levels – up to a highly toxic 6.8 ppm! The use of fluoride-containing insecticides in grape crops is a factor in these high levels. Cooking can greatly increase a food’s fluoride content. Also, keep in mind that toxic fluoride is also an ingredient in pharmaceuticals, aerosols, insecticides and pesticides. Common fluoride levels in toothpaste are 1000 ppm. When fluoride is ingested, about 93% is absorbed into the bloodstream and what is not excreted is deposited in the bones and teeth of the body – Shocking Facts!

• Fluoride use is toxic, absolutely unsafe and should be stopped immediately! The government feels that its central concern is to protect industry, therefore the solution to pollution is dilution! You poison everyone a little bit rather than poison a few people a lot. This way, people don’t know what’s going on. Any public health official who criticizes the practice of toxic fluoridation is at risk of losing his job. Shocking: National Toxicology Program Researchers downgraded cancers caused by fluoridation after being coerced by superiors to change their shocking, truthful findings.

• Fluoride has been proven to cause osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer; squamous cell carcinoma in the mouth; fluorosis of the teeth; osteosclerosis of the long bones; liver cancer; chromosome aberrations; genetic damage; and skeletal fluorosis and deformities. B. Spittle, author of Psychopharmacology of fluoride: a review states “There appears to be evidence that chronic exposure to fluoride may be linked with cerebral impairment that affects particularly the concentration and memory in some individuals.”

More Fluoride Warnings:Studies show fluoride in all its many uses, including public drinking water, causes cancer:

• The overwhelming evidence shows that fluoridation is causing an increase in bone cancer and deaths among males under 20.• The growing increase in bone cancer attributable to fluoridation may be due to also an increase in osteosarcoma, all caused by fluoride.• The overall preponderance of evidence shows that fluoridation is causing an increase in oral (mouth) cancer among human populations. Don’t use fluoride toothpastes or give your dentist consent to do fluoride gel treatments or use fluoride polishing paste.• Fluoride has been linked to many health problems:• bone and oral cancers in animals and humans• an ability to inhibit the DNA repair enzyme system• it accelerates tumor growth• it inhibits the immune system• it causes genetic damage in a number of different cell lines and induces melanotic tumors, fibrosarcomas, etc.• other tumors and cancers strongly indicate that fluoride has a generalized effect of increasing them overall.

• According to our estimates, over 10,000 people in the United States die of cancer each year due to fluoridation of public drinking water.

• Hip Fracture Rate Highest in U.S.The fluoridation of our water is weakening our bones, slowly but surely.– U.S. National Research Council and Townsend Letter for Doctors

• Fluoride and OsteoporosisSeniors living in areas with elevated fluoride levels in drinking water suffer up to 41% more hip fractures. In a study of 3,578 senior citizens, those who lived in areas with fluoridated water had a much greater risk of hip fractures.– Journal of the American Medical Association

• Fluoride and Bone CancerOne study concluded that males under the age of 20 who live in areas with fluoridated water were six times more likely to suffer from bone cancer than males who don’t. – New Jersey Department of Health

• The Deadly Costs of FluoridationWhen a claimed 20% decrease in tooth decay is compared to a 600% increase in bone cancer or a 41% increase in hip fractures, when the cost of a tooth filling is compared to the cost of a hip fracture or cancer treatment, it is obvious that the human and economic costs of fluoridation are staggering. – Health Action Network – www.hans.org

• Fluoridated Water Increases Bone Cancer RiskIn a study conducted by the New Jersey Department of Health, young men who drank fluoridated water had a higher incidence of bone cancer. – The Record

• Osteoporosis, Calcium and FluorideThe National Institutes of Health (NIH) gathered a panel of “experts” to discuss the causes of the rising epidemic of bone fractures in the elderly. Although the evidence clearly shows that calcium supplements don’t help, and just as clearly shows that fluoride is terrible for the bones, the NIH simply recommended an increase in the recommended daily allowance of calcium.– The Fluoride Report

• The Overwhelming Evidence that Fluoride Weakens BonesDr. John Lee showed that “...7 out of 10 recent studies show a clear correlation between bone fractures and water fluoridation. One of these studies involved 560,000 women over 65. The size of this study completely obliterates the few reports of small populations that showed no correlation.” – The Fluoride Report, September, 1994

• Fluoride Actually Reduces Bone Strength, Instead of Increasing It!In a five year study conducted to test fluoride as a treatment for osteoporosis, bone density was actually decreased 45%, therefore causing osteoporosis, rather than preventing it! The doses used were very close to the amount Americans take in over a fifty year span. – Bone, Vol. 15, 1994

• How The EPA is Spending Your Tax DollarsWhen Dr. Bill Marcus won back his job with the EPA after being fired for blowing the whistle on the cover-up of fluoride’s hazards, the EPA refused to pay interest on his two years of lost wages. While the lawyers haggle, the whole sum is being withheld, and guess who’s paying for the EPA’s lawyers? - The Fluoride Report

• Fluoridation Accidents Swept Under the RugToxic spills of fluoride in drinking water have happened in several communities, but these were never publicized. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and even deaths occurred. – Townsend Letter for Doctors

• Why Do Researchers Continue to Support Deadly Fluoridation?Once accepted, scientific theories become very hard to debunk. Research done on the topic after a theory has been accepted becomes “a strenuous and devoted attempt to force nature into the conceptual boxes supplied by professional education.” – Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

• Fluoride: Shocking FactsFluoride has never received FDA approval and wouldn’t pass if it were subjected to the FDA’s standards of safety and effectiveness. It’s more toxic than lead by the EPA’s standards and accumulates in the body. The maximum allowable lead in drinking water: 0.015 mg/liter; the maximum allowable for fluoride: 4.000 mg/liter. – Health Action Network – www.hans.org

• Fluoridation: A Health Violation of Medical EthicsFluoride is a pharmacologically active substance unrelated to water purification. There is no possibility of obtaining individual informed consent for medication with this experimental drug when it is placed in a public water system. For these reasons, fluoridation violates the Nuremburg Code of medical ethics and human rights. – Health Action Network

• Fluoride: Industrial WasteThe fluoride in your water is actually toxic waste left over after the manufacture of aluminum and chemical fertilizers. – Dr. John Yiamouyiannis, Fluoride, The Aging Factor

• Environmental Protection Agency InfightingEPA toxicologists have long been asking that the standards for water fluoridation be revised, while EPA administrators continue to reject their warnings and have even disciplined employees who have spoken out. – The Pittsburgh Press

• Fluoridation is Big BusinessDespite the fact that it doesn’t actually prevent tooth decay in children or adults, government officials still devote our tax dollars to fluoridation. Several other countries tried it and stopped when their research showed that the risks far outweighed the benefits. In this country, the big companies that make huge profits from selling this toxic waste material are so powerful that the facts are swept under the rug. – Let’s Live! May 1996. (This magazine, originally called California Health News, was started by Paul C. Bragg, who changed the name because, he said, “Everybody wants to – Let’s Live!” )

• Mohawk Indians’ Fluoride TragedyIn the period from 1960 to 1975, a Mohawk Indian tribe in the Northeast U.S. was all but obliterated by fluoride contamination. Cows, fish and children all suffered from tooth and bone deformities caused by wastes from two major metal manufacturers. (Now all Indian reservations have fluoridated water!)– “Fluoride: Commie Plot or Capitalist Ploy?” by Joel Griffiths

• Fluoride is Highly ToxicThe fact is that fluoride is more toxic than lead and just slightly less toxic than the killer arsenic. – Gary Null, The Fluoridation Fiasco

• Use Non-Fluoride ToothpasteFluoride in toothpaste is absorbed through the lining of the mouth, and in only one or two brushings, a milligram of fluoride enters your body. – Health Action Network

• Fluoridation Increases Lead ContaminationFluoride leaches lead from plumbing and water mains. In Tacoma, Washington, where lead content of water had risen above EPA limits, fluoridation was halted because of equipment failure. Officials were surprised at the resulting 50% drop in lead contamination. – Letter from C.R. Myrick, Water Quality Coordinator, Tacoma, WA

• Fluoride and Decreasing Birth RatesFluoride is found to decrease fertility in studies of animals and humans. – Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health

• Highly Publicized Fluoride Studies Show Medical MistakeThe high doses of sodium fluoride used in clinical studies of this drug are known to lead to a condition called osteofluorosis. This means abnormal bone growth and calcification of tendons and ligaments. Although this may help prevent spinal fracture and compression, it also increases risk of hip fracture and causes arthritis-like pain.– Open letter from pioneer John Lee, M.D., to C.Y.C. Pak, M.D., regarding Dr. Pak’s study on sodium fluoride in the Annals of Internal Medicine

• Danger is Not Only in The Water, but in Processed FoodsThere are no regulations on fluoride content of processed foods. Many of these packaged foods are loaded with deadly fluoride. – Health Action Network

• Tooth Decay Decline Unrelated to FluorideTooth decay has declined worldwide, with no difference between countries with or without water fluoridation. – Health Action Network

• The Sad, Unnecessary Epidemic of Dental FluorosisThis disease, marked by tooth enamel malformation, mottled-discoloration and brittleness, affects up to 30% of children living in areas with fluoridated water. Only 10% of children in non-fluoridated locations have dental fluorosis. – Public Health Service figures

• H. Dean Changes His Mind and Retracts Fluoridation Endorsement!H. Trendly Dean, the original promoter of water fluoridation, admitted under oath in 1955 that it doesn’t work as a remedy for tooth decay. – Fluoride, Vol. 14, No. 3, July 1981

• Study Reveals That Fluoride Causes Tooth DecayChildren in India who drank fluoridated water suffered from significantly more tooth decay than children who did not. Especially at risk were children with very little calcium in their diets.– The Journal of the New Zealand Pure Water Association

• Children Poisoned by ToothpasteWhen Crest fluoride toothpaste was first sold in the 1950s, warnings that it should not be used in children under six were eliminated from the package – because they damaged sales! When two children in Tacoma, Washington, began to throw up every night before bed, doctors told the parents that their toothpaste was to blame! At last fluoride danger warnings are now mandatory on all new fluoride toothpaste labels! - The Fluoride Report

Keep Toxic Fluoride Out of Your Water!

Most water Americans drink has fluoride in it, including tap, bottled and canned drinks and foods! Now, ADA (American Dental Assoc.) is insisting that the FDA mandate the addition of fluoride to all bottled waters! Defend your right to drink pure, nonfluoridated tap and bottled waters! Challenge and stop local and state water fluoridation policies! Call, write, fax or e-mail your state officials and congress people and send them a copy of this revealing book.

Millions upon millions of innocent people have been brainwashed by the aluminum companies to erroneously believe that adding sodium fluoride to our drinking water will reduce tooth decay in our children. Over 135 million Americans drink a daily dose of sodium fluoride in their water without thinking of it!

Fluorine, the gangster of the chemical underworld, made the atomic bomb possible. The only scientific way to free the necessary quantities of fissionable Uranium 235, buried in the inert mass of its parent U-238, is to force uranium hexafluoride gas through many acres of porous barriers. The next part of the process gradually concentrates the elements, creating a deadly hazard from radiation. "Hex" is what they named this vicious stuff.

Millions of Americans drink water spiked with a sodium fluoride solution. A chemical cousin of sodium, fluorine is not as toxic as "Hex" . . . but toxic enough, in high concentrations, to be used as a standard roach and rat killer and a deadly pesticide.

Yet this terrible, deadly sodium fluoride, injected virtually by government edict into drinking water in the proportion of 1.2 parts per million (PPM), has been declared by the United States Public Health Service to be "absolutely safe for all human consumption". Every qualified chemist knows that such "absolute safety" is not only unattainable, but a total illusion!

The Grim Story Behind Fluoridation

It was in the year 1939 that a famous institute in the eastern part of the United States commissioned their biochemist to find a use for the sodium fluoride wastes produced by aluminum foundries. Some 45 other industries also had fluoride disposal problems. Many were tormented by expensive damage suits arising from the noxious effects of the poison on livestock and crops. Oil refineries, metal smelters, tile, brick, steel, fertilizer and ceramic plants and many installations of the Atomic Energy Commission were involved. The cost to eliminate this chemical was fantastically high. Was there no way this byproduct could be put to a profitable use?

Now this biochemist was a clever and cunning man. He came up with a big moneymaking idea: why not dissolve the stuff in drinking water? He had absolutely no medical background and had not conducted any clinical research into the effects of sodium fluoride on our body's chemistry. His idea went over big with companies who were burdened by what to do with sodium fluoride wastes.

The next step was not difficult . . . turn the idea over to the advertising companies and let them brainwash the public into believing that the greatest health measure in modern times had been discovered. Give a "tall tale" to the gullible American public and if it sounds scientific, they will bite hook, line and sinker! So they used the tall tale that sodium fluoride in drinking water would prevent tooth decay in children, as they found a Texas town that had naturally occurring fluoride and, it seemed, fewer dental cavities. The public was eager to hear more. At last, a way to prevent tooth decay! Sadly, most became convinced at first despite that every smart thinking person knows that tooth decay comes from poor nutrition and especially the high consumption of refined sugar drinks, candy and products.

Big business and large professional organizations have a way of sticking together. Remember, they have the power of the media behind them because of the economic control exerted by the publishers' chief source of income advertising! With the aid of television, radio, newspapers and magazines, the major business, professional and social organizations promoted the 'great merits' of sodium fluoride, although totally false and dangerous to the American people.

Any person who publicly questioned this poisoning of drinking water with sodium fluoride was called stupid, ignorant, uninformed and backward! Most doctors and dentists surrendered to these powerful forces for fear of being discredited by their professional associations and communities. However, you can always find some honest and sincere professionals who fight for truth no matter how others might ridicule them! Extreme pressures were put upon city and state governments to fluoridate the drinking water. Big business and large professional organizations, which can act like the Mafia, do not take "No" for an answer! They know how to pressure state, city and water officials to think and take action their way, often not for good!

Shocking Historical Fluoride Facts

Adolf Hitler sought a means to make people docile and suggestible. He discovered that odorless sodium fluoride slowly poisons and makes dormant the small tissue in the brain's left rear occipital lobe that normally helps a person resist domination. Fluoride allows muscles to move one way, but not relax. In large doses fluoride causes paralysis and death.

Sodium fluoride is classified with arsenic and cyanide as a dangerous poison and is used in rat poison. Hydrogen fluoride is an industrial pollutant. It is illegal to sell or give away a fluoride pill of 1 mg. Fluoride slowly destroys the body's self-repair and rejuvenation capabilities causing premature aging, bone damage and deformities.

Fluoride increases the risk of hip fractures up to 41%. Fluoridation can cause tooth enamel mottling, poor health, mongolism in infants and increases the growth of cancer cells.

"Fluoridation is the greatest case of scientific fraud of this century, if not all time."- Robert Carton, Ph.D., Toxicologist

Since 1996 these 11 Associations no longer endorse Water Fluoridation:

American Heart Assoc.

American Academy of Allergy & Immunology

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Activation Network

American Diabetes Assoc.

National Institute of Law Municipal Officers

American Chiropractic Assoc.

American Civil Liberties Union

Nat'l Kidney Foundation

American Psychiatric Assoc.

Soc. of Toxicology

"The survival of this fake controversy represents one of the major triumphs of quackery over science in our times!"- Consumer Reports '78

A Few of the Serious Health Disorders caused by Deadly Fluoridated Water:

Cancer with all its deadly forms

Digestive System Disorders

Ulcers & Colitis

Inability to Utilize Vit. B & C

Constipation & Nausea

Cirrhosis & Hepatitis

Kidney, Bladder & Urinary Disorders

Respiratory & Lung Disorder

Tuberculosis, Asthma, Sinusitis & Bronchitis

Circulatory Diseases

Arteriosclerosis, Heart Failure, Hypo & Hypertension

Varicose Veins & Coronary Thrombosis

Leukemia, Hemophilia & Anemia

Mental & Neurological Disorders

Neuroses & Psychoses, Polio & Multiple Sclerosis

Eye Diseases & Endocrine Dysfunction Cataracts, Glaucoma, Goiter

Impaired Gland Function: Adrenal, Thyroid, Sterility & Sex

Skin, Nail & Hair Conditions

Acne & Boils, Dermatitis & Eczema, Alopecia & Lupus

Bone & Joint Conditions - Osteoporosis, Bone Cancer

Arthritis, Swollen & Aching Joints

Teeth & Gum Diseases - Gum & Periodontal, Mottled & Darkened Teeth

Bone & Calcium Loss

Shocking Fluoride Facts:

53% of the U.S. population drinks water containing fluoride, which is costing taxpayers billions of dollars, not only for the fluoride, but in added medical expenses!

41 of the 50 largest US cities have added fluoride to their drinking water. Los Angeles and San Diego are two lucky ones, but Gov. Wilson is trying to pass a fluoride bill for all California, which could bankrupt cities and their medical facilities!

Millions of gallons of this deadly poison are doing untold damage. If your area is fluoridated start action groups to stop this criminal action now - to protect and save the lives of yourself, your family and future generations!!!

Dr. Marijah McCain is a naturopath, master herbalist, homeopath and research microscopist with a following of a quarter million students and customers. My initial interest in interviewing Dr. McCain concerned a four-herb formula called Essiac. Dr. McCain covered the following topics in her interview:

ESSIAC FOR SKIN PROBLEMS

ESSIAC FOR DETOXIFICATION

ESSIAC IS NON TOXIC

ESSIAC AND CHEMOTHERAPY

ESSIAC, ARTHRITIS AND OXALIC ACID

ESSIAC AND DIABETES

ESSIAC AND THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

ESSIAC AND DEPRESSION

ESSIAC AND ASTHMA

SURVIVING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

Lanny: “How long have you been using Essiac?”

Dr. McCain: “I would guess probably about seven years. I made it available for my students to try. I didn’t come right out and say it was going to be any good. I asked my students if they wanted to give it a try. My students started to try it and the feedback was just absolutely unbelievable.”

Lanny: “What kind of feedback did you get?”

ESSIAC FOR SKIN PROBLEMS

Dr. McCain: “The very first call I got was from a chiropractor who had a patient that had psoriasis for eight years. And she just put the patient on it because she just decided she’d give it a shot and it cleared up the psoriasis. They had never been able to clear up the psoriasis in eight years. So the first testimonials were not cancer testimonials. The first testimonials were actually skin problem testimonials, which was really remarkable. The first cancer testimonial I had was from a man in Arkansas and he had terminal lung cancer. One of my students had given him the tea to try and it had cured his lung cancer and he had done nothing else. There was no other supplements taken—nothing else—all he did was take the tea. And I thought: Oh, my Goodness, we’re seriously on to something here. So then in the next newsletter, with about six or seven testimonials that I had in hand from my students, I said okay I’m going to offer this. I’m not going to make any claims on it, but if you guys want to try it here it is, and it just went berserk. We sent out testimonial sheets for about the first five years every time we sent out the tea. I have testimonial sheets that would fill a closet on this tea. It was really shocking to me because it wasn’t just the cancer and I couldn’t understand how come we were getting so many different testimonials. We had one lady call in. She had these awful white patches all over her skin and she took the tea and the white patches turned hard and they all peeled off and her skin went back to normal. Which was really remarkable because she had that for years and years. We had another elderly person who had lost all their hair. They took the tea, the hair grew back, but not only did the hair grow back, the hair grew back brown. When they lost their hair, it was gray.

“These testimonials were blowing my mind because I was trying to figure out what in the world this tea was doing in order to have such broad-based positive health effects on so many different things. So I started to investigate, seriously, the burdock root—see what was in it. Everybody reported better energy when they took the tea. Well, come to find out burdock root is very high in iron, in natural iron that is easily assimilable in the body. So that was good. It was a blood builder, but the primary function of it is that it is a liver cleanser. The liver, of course, filters the blood system and when it’s toxic, the immune system starts to fail. This is what was so profound about this tea because as soon as you started to cleanse the liver the immune system would kick in and it would pretty much fix whatever the problem was in the person. That’s what I found so mind-boggling about this tea. It wasn’t just for cancer; it’s our number one formula now that we use for any kind of skin ailment, hives, psoriasis, especially acne. It works wonders with acne because the skin is the last eliminatory organ. So when the liver is toxic, the poisons start coming out the skin. As soon as you detox the liver, the skin goes back to normal. I’ve got years and years of experience with this. It’s just mind-boggling.”

ESSIAC FOR DETOXIFICATION

Lanny: “What other conditions does Essiac help?”

Dr. McCain: “I had a little guy, a child that was seriously poisoned with SEVIN dust [a garden pesticide]. What happened was this child got very, very ill—been to all the doctors and everything—and they had called me and she described the symptoms. And I had said to her: Listen, it sounds to me like there is some type of poisoning with this child. They had tried every antibiotic, everything with this kid, and the kid was just getting sicker and sicker and sicker. I put the child on the four-herb tea and that was it. Once the chemicals were detoxed out of the body the child recovered and came back to normal. So there was a case where the child was poisoned with a chemical poisoning and it was affecting the liver and the blood system and the neurological system. The child was having neurological symptoms as well. So those types of poisonings—chemical, pesticides, that type of thing that localize in the liver—the four-herb tea helps those as well. Which is pretty remarkable.

“And also I don’t know if you want to mention this or not, because it is very, very controversial, but I have had an awful lot of children who had been given the MMR vaccine and DPT shots and they have manifested symptoms to the extreme of autism where they can’t talk any more and they have serious learning disorders. I formulated homeopathic formulas to counter-balance these vaccines, but I also put these children on the four-herb tea. And my most dramatic case was a case in China where the child, after having received the vaccine, quit speaking, would run around on his tippy-toes, bang his head up against the wall. It was a very, very sad case because the child was normal before they got the vaccine. It took about ten months. I worked with these people. As a matter of fact that was what sparked me to have the MMR detox made up, the actual homeopathic done. And I had sent that over to China and we eventually restored that child to health. But part of the protocol was using the four-herb tea. I did use some other things as well. These are very, very dramatic cases where the medical doctors have no solutions whatsoever.”

Lanny: “Yeah, except drugs.”

Dr. McCain: “Well, yeah, that child would have been institutionalized. They would have had to lock that child up. So I really went out of my way to try to save that child and since then have saved a lot of children.

NO TOXICITY PROBLEMS WITH ESSIAC

“I’ve got to tell you this about the toxicity levels of it [Essiac]. When we very first started making the tea, I got an emergency phone call. A parent had made the tea and put it in the refrigerator and had left the house with a babysitter and a six-month old baby. Well, the babysitter thought it was iced tea, went into the frig and filled up an eight-ounce bottle, gave it to the six-month old baby--that’s an eight-ounce bottle of four-herb tea, straight (i.e., undiluted)—and drank two glasses herself. The parent called me, absolutely flipped out of their mind, okay. We monitored the baby for two days—absolutely no toxic side effect at all. So there is the testimonial on the toxicity. No toxicity from this product [Essiac]. We have never, ever, not one time in all these years, had a toxic reaction to that tea. Not one.

ESSIAC AND CHEMOTHERAPY

“It’s unbelievable. The worse thing that happened is that we’ve had people that have had a lot of drugs, a lot of chemotherapy, etcetera, they’ll start off on the tea three times a day, they might get a mild headache because the body is detoxing so quickly. We back them up; we tell them to start off just once a day and build up to it over a couple of weeks. But that’s the very worse thing. And we’ve given it to so many people and people have given it to dogs and cats and you name it over the years. We’ve sold thousands and thousands and thousands of packages of this tea and have had tremendous amounts of feedback and so I’m very, very familiar with this tea. The original instructions were two ounces in a little bit of warm water three times a day. We have increased that because we know there’s no toxicity, so we do tell people if they want to they can increase it to four or five times a day. I had one lady who had breast cancer who called me and said she drank a quart a day. And she did heal herself of breast cancer, by the way, but she was drinking a tremendous amount more than what the recommended doses were. So people do what they want even if you do give them instructions, but I wouldn’t recommend that because people take a lot more supplements now. When we very first started out with this tea, that was all we had and mostly people just took the tea. Now we have a lot of other things, people are much more educated—the antioxidants and they added a lot of other things as well. You can overwhelm the body when it’s trying to heal itself, if you add too many things.”

ESSIAC, ARTHRITIS AND OXALIC ACID

Lanny: “Some people bring up the oxalic acid in sheep sorel…”

Dr. McCain: “I believe that’s in the turkey rhubarb as well. The only thing that is contraindicated for is an arthritic-type condition, an acidic condition. Interestingly enough, in my research most people with cancer do not have arthritis and vice versa. That’s not a law, but it’s pretty common, a general trend. We don’t normally recommend the tea for arthritic conditions because we’ve got so many other things that benefit arthritis much better. And if they do have to take the tea, we recommend that they just add in a calcium supplement, that’s all. Because an arthritic condition is an acidic condition and the oxalic acid makes it a little bit acidic. It can aggravate it [Essiac] a little bit, but it’s not harmful; it just doesn’t cure it. People report that they’re a little stiffer, so we supplement calcium and we don’t have a problem with the stiffness. It’s just the stiffness. They get pain--when they get arthritis they ache. The calcium counterbalances that. That’s what an arthritic condition is, is the body is not getting enough calcium and is pulling calcium from the bones. So you have to supplement calcium and then you don’t have a problem, unless it’s an arthritic condition caused by infection. There’s a couple different causes, but most common is lack of calcium.”

ESSIAC AND DIABETES

Lanny: “Have you noticed a lot of people with diabetes with testimonials about Essiac?”

Dr. McCain: “Absolutely. The four-herb tea was really good. As a matter of fact we had to put a warning in there. People who were on insulin that were taking the tea needed to monitor their blood sugar because sometimes the pancreas would kick back in, but not all the time it would. Let’s say, for instance, the person had been on insulin for fifteen years. The chances of the pancreas kicking back in are going to be a lot slimmer than if a person has just come down with diabetes. Follow? Let’s hypothetically say this person is on a fixed dose of insulin a day and we do give them the tea and the pancreas does start to kick in. They’ve got to monitor that sugar, otherwise they will get an insulin shock because their body does not need that much insulin. Any time we give it to a diabetic patient we have to make sure that they watch their sugar because if their sugar drops down they don’t need to be taking their massive doses of their drugs. They’ve got to be careful. Follow? The tea did in fact sometimes make very radical improvements in people that were diabetics. We’ve had people come off the insulin with the Essiac, but those are people who are very strict about not eating sugar. The problem with diabetics is that they go to their doctor and the doctor tells them that they’re diabetic and they give them insulin shots and they go home and eat their Twinkies. They continue to eat sugar, that’s where the problem is. They’ve got to stop eating sugar. And the people that will quit eating sugar, change their diet and then work with the tea and some other supplements like vanadium. They found that vanadium is deficient in diabetics. The chromium picolinate really helps. If they will work with their supplements they can reverse it. But they can’t reverse it if they won’t change their diet. [Dr. Banting, a co-discover of insulin, also found a correlation between Essiac, insulin, and the pancreas.]

ESSIAC AND THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

“We have people that are perfectly healthy take it [Essiac] just as a maintenance and they’ll swear that they don’t get colds any more. They’ll swear that they feel better. They take it just once a day. Another thing is longevity. I have a customer who had terminal cancer in 1996 and he started taking the four-herb tea. They had given him a very short time to live and this is 2003. You could never convince this man to stop taking the tea. So people ask me if it’s safe for long-term use. You bet.

ESSIAC AND DEPRESSION

"We’re in some serious, troubled times and this government and this medical system, etc., they’re not her to save people, I can tell you that. That much I know. People have got to save themselves. And the problem is they get so depressed.

“That’s another thing. I’ve got to tell you—make sure you put this in your article because this is so important now. Depression—the liver works with the chemical balances, the chemical balances in the body. And the doctors tell you it’s the brain that gets chemically imbalanced. But it actually has to do with the liver and the toxicity levels. So we have worked with this four-herb tea [Essiac] with so many people that are suffering from depression—serious, serious depression—and it will bring them right out of it once they detox. Let’s hypothetically say—God forbid—let’s take an example of a person whose mother just drops dead or is murdered. They go into such a terrible state of shock. They cry for days. The body releases all these chemicals and it poisons the system. [Toxins are stored in the fat tissues in the body and can be released at any time.] It poisons the body. They become lethargic, they become depressed, they won’t get out of the bed. They go to the doctor. The doctor says you need Prozac, you need this, you need that, and they keep poisoning the body. The body keeps getting poisoned until they eventually become suicidal and sometimes they even have to be institutionalized. At any point in time in that scenario if you will put them on the four-herb tea, they will see an immediate improvement within two weeks. They will start to feel better. Their brains will start to clear. They will have more energy. They’ll start to get their lives back and then you start to add in some other supplements. But I have brought people back from just the edge of what I would call ‘darkness’. Because I do understand that it’s a poison situation. They’ve actually poisoned themselves. Do you follow me?”

ESSIAC AND ASTHMA

Lanny: “I’ve been there. I had very serious, chronic asthma and those inhalers were poisoning me. I didn’t realize it until I went off the inhalers. The first thing I did was move out of the city and the pollution, then I could breathe better, immediately. Then I started taking St. John’s wort because I read where it was good for asthma. After several months on the St. John’s wort, I went off the inhalers. I really didn’t do anything else.”

Dr. McCain: “Well, see, St. John’s wort is also a liver cleanser. It’s primary action is to cleanse the liver. So there you have a liver cleanser working again. This is why it’s so valuable, the St. John’s wort.”

Lanny: “Well, I finally went off the inhalers. But before that the doctors wanted to put me on Prozac as a solution to counteract the symptoms I was having from the toxins in the inhalers. Now I just drink Essiac tea every day and I haven't had any problems with asthma.” [Also, Dr. Gary Glum successfully treated his chronic bronchitis with Essiac.]

SURVIVING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

Dr. McCain: “In order to survive, the people—what I call the remnant, or the people that really will survive—are the ones that are going to be able to pull themselves up and look after themselves and understand these principles. God really moved me to help save the remnant. That was why I started this whole business. That’s why I started with herbology to teach people how to use the herbs, teach them how to grow them, teach them how to put them in their back yard so they could look after themselves. And this was twenty years ago I had this burden. I saw it coming.”

I asked Dr. McCain what herbs or supplements are most effective in surviving weapons of mass destruction. She indicated that colloidal silver would be at the top of the list because of its antimicrobial properties. Olive leaf extract is second on the list because of its antiviral properties. The four-herb tea is necessary to detoxify the liver, kidneys, etc. Dr. McCain indicated that other microbials such as grapefruit seed extract and oil of oregano are also very effective.

Dr. McCain: “For instance, let’s take smallpox as an example. Smallpox is a virus. I wouldn’t stake my life on colloidal silver with smallpox. I would use colloidal silver as well as the antivirals. Olive leaf was tested in Israel and was even found to nail polio one, two and three. And it was found to nail most of the influenzas that they researched. So this is a very powerful anti-viral and smallpox is a virus. Now you take anthrax, a simple bacteria, which is nailed very quickly with a pharmaceutical grade colloidal silver. But let me tell you how the four-herb tea fits into this. Let’s say you get exposed to smallpox today. You have virtually no symptoms for a couple of days. You might feel like you have a little bit of flu, but it will go back down in the body where you won’t really manifest anything for maybe seven days. In that seven days that virus is replicating in your body and by the time you start to get a rash it has completely taken over the liver and the kidneys. The liver and the kidneys are so toxic that the toxins are starting to come out the skin and this is why you’re getting the skin rash. So what I say is if there is any chance of exposure you want to be on the four-herb tea immediately. Keep that liver and those kidneys detoxing. Get your antiviral in there—your olive leaf extract and your colloidal silver. Make sure that you don’t have any constipation—that everything is flowing through and you won’t get deathly sick; it’s impossible. Because it’s just a virus and if you allow it to replicate in there it’s liable to kill you. But if you don’t and you get after it and you push it through, it won’t. Do you understand what I am saying? So this is where the value of the four-herb tea comes in. Because the four-herb tea helps cleanse the liver and takes the load out of the system.”

Lanny: “Does the olive leaf extract keep the virus from penetrating the cell, like elderberry does?”

Dr. McCain: “No, it stops the virus from replicating. You need something to stop it from replicating because the cells are continually replacing themselves every day—they’re always dying. So if you can stop from replicating, then the cells that are contaminated will die off. This is why we’ve been able to help people with herpes and hepatitis. Over six months to a year we’ve been able to eradicate hepatitis. And the medical doctors say that’s impossible. But antivirals have to be used for long term if you have a chronic virus like HIV, herpes, those types of things. You have to be on them on a regular basis because they’re spurred—like they can sit in the cell for a long time—and they’re spurred by say trauma, shock, upset, emotional, you know, where they have an outbreak, where the virus is opportunistic and it waits until the immune system has been hit and then out it comes. Do you follow?”

{Common Law copyright March 2003 Lanny Messinger; This article may be reproduced and distributed only under the conditions 1) that it be free of charge; 2) that it be reproduced in its entirety without any alterations whatsoever; and 3) that anyone who wishes to post this article on a website must first obtain permission from Lanny Messinger at http://www.HealthFreedom.info}

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